As I mentioned last week, I am bringing over some Behind the Jersey features to WIM now that I am blogging here full time. The most popular BTJ feature was Behind the Blog, which is basically an email interview with a hockey blogger that in 10 questions asks about their favorite team, the NHL, and their blog so you get to better know the blogger. I will be going through the SBN hockey blogs first and then plan on branching out to other hockey blogs so if you'd like to participate, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Our first guest is Frank from PensBurgh, which is the SBN blog dedicated to covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. I want to thank him for taking the time to answer my questions. Please return to hear from Joe at Mile High Hockey.

Q.4 - What do you hope to achieve with your blog over the next year?

I read a lot of newspapers online, not just for Pitt but also for whatever team the Pens are going up against.  If anything I check out Yahoo's PuckDaddy and James Mirtle's new site From The Rink daily to check out whatever topics they have goin down.  I'm highly motivated to try and talk about the things people aren't talking about too, or aspects of the team I feel are being overlooked.  But in the vast blogosphere that is hockeydom it's definitely hard to find a collection of sites that aren't touching up on the hot topics.

Power forward Johan Franzen is out 3-4 weeks with a knee sprain, which he suffered in the second period of last night's game against the Chicago Blackhawks. The MRI did not reveal any ligament damage, which is why it is being classified as a sprain.

Finnish forward Ville Leino has been recalled from Grand Rapids and may play tomorrow in LA for his first NHL regular season game of his career. He had a strong preseason so I'm looking forward to see him play if he does.

The loss of Franzen is frustrating especially since Henrik Zetterberg and him were quite the duo on the Wings second line. However, the knee injury could have been much worse so I guess I should be pleased that it will only keep him out for 3-4 weeks instead of an entire season. It will be interesting to see how head coach Mike Babcock shuffles the lines up for tomorrow's game.

Update (October 27): Sounds like the GR Griffins' PR staff got a little excited about seeing their 96th player get time in the NHL. Leino was not actually recalled, but if the Wings start thinking Johan Franzen's injury will keep him out past three weeks, they will recall someone from GR (likely Leino). As of right now, Detroit only has room for someone else under the cap if Franzen is added to the IR list.

"Obviously, we were concerned," Wings GM Ken Holland told ESPN.com from Los Angeles on Monday. "We left him behind in Chicago on Saturday night. He flew back to Detroit on Sunday morning and had an MRI. It's a Grade 2 MCL sprain. Right now, the doctor feels it's three to four weeks. We're going to wait two to three days, and if he feels pretty good in two to three days, then maybe we're looking at less time than three weeks.

"If in two to three days he's still pretty stiff, then we're probably looking at three to four weeks and we might consider putting him on LTI so we can get another body up here. So we're going to sit tight here for the next couple of days and see how his knee responds."

LTI stands for long-term injury reserve; it's a place to park a player while he's out long term and save money against the salary cap.

Tonight's game was a nail-biter finish as the game went into overtime and then the shootout. Marian Hossa just teed it off and his hard slap shot won the game for Detroit to start off their road trip on a 6-5 victory. If you include the game-winning shootout goal, Hossa has five goals in the last four games.

Personally, it was my favorite game of the season with tons of offense. The number of Detroit penalties (8) was a bit frustrating, but the Wings were able to fight back and get the two points over a division opponent. With all the offense, it was a great game for numerous players. Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler, and Marian Hossa all had a goal and two assists (not including the GWG, which won't be included in stats because it came in the shootout).

There were just too many goals for me to describe each one, but please visit the Game Thread from tonight's action and you can see my remarks on each goal.

The only bad news of the night: power forward Johan Franzen left the game early in the second period with a knee injury. He did not return. The severity of his injury is unknown.

The Wings will play on Monday evening in LA.

During tonight's game against Chicago, both teams unveiled their new jerseys for the 2009 Winter Classic game. You can see Detroit's jersey on veteran defenseman Chris Chelios below.

via cdn.nhl.com

The main focus of the jersey is the vintage Old English "D" that was on the jersey in the early franchise days. It may be hard to tell from this picture, but the Winged Wheel is on both shoulders so you get the vintage jersey with the iconic logo on top.

"With the overwhelming success of last season's outdoor game and the anticipation for this season's, the NHL Winter Classic instantly has become a significant event in our calendar year," said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President Marketing, NHL. "By wearing commemorative retro jerseys, we not only are celebrating the history of these two Original Six teams, but also recognizing the uniqueness of bringing the game back to its roots."

"We're proud to represent the rich history of the Detroit Red Wings and the City of Detroit," said Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Ken Holland.  "The Old English ‘D' served as the hockey team's very first logo and is widely recognized as a symbol for our city and its sports teams."

So if you like the jersey, how do you get your hands on one? You will be able to purchase jerseys via retail (I'm guessing this means Hockeytown Authentics) and the Internet in early December, but the specific date has yet to be released. You can pre-order a jersey by calling 1-800-WINGS-25.

The Wings head to Chicago for their first match-up against the Blackhawks of the season and their first game of a five-game road trip. The game starts at 8:30pm (EST) and will feature an unveiling of both teams' jerseys for the upcoming 2009 Winter Classic. We'll be able to see them during the first intermission on FSN Detroit.

Ty Conklin will get the start in goal for Detroit and it looks like defenseman Andreas Lilja won't return until Monday's game against the Kings.

I will be around during the game so please stop by. I'd love to hear from you!

Marian Hossa had a three point night against his former team, the Atlanta Thrashers. While Henrik Zetterberg got Detroit on the board first, it was Hossa's dazzling stickwork on the Wings' second goal of the night that should make its way to a few highlight reels over the next 24 hours. Hossa describes the goal to FSN Detroit below:

I tried to fake a shot and the defenseman bite on it and I was surprised that Kari [Lehtonen] went out of the net a little far. I saw the open net.

And who was the defenseman who got owned by Hossa? None other than former Wing Mathieu Schneider. Hossa later scored on a one-timer from Niklas Kronwall's pass just 5:29 into the second period.

He then assisted on Dan Cleary's goal, an empty netter, with just 36 seconds remaining. While Hossa may have stolen the show with his ridiculously beautiful goal, Zetterberg had a solid outing scoring twice in the win including the game-winning goal. It marked his third goal in the two games since he returned from a groin injury.

Other Interesting Notes:

• Jim Slater scored the first goal of the game off of a Brett Lebda turnover. Slater is a Michigan native and played for Michigan State from 2001-05. Former Red Wing Jason Williams earned an assist on the goal.
• Brian Rafalski notched two assists tonight on Zetterberg's game-winning goal and Cleary's empty net goal extending the defenseman's point streak for another game. The Michigan native now has a goal and eight assists since the season opener on October 9th.
• Former Wing Mathieu Schneider called Detroit one of the best sports towns in the country.

Quick hits is a feature that I have brought over from Behind the Jersey and is essentially a place where I put a bunch of random notes and interesting articles I have found of late concerning the Wings and the NHL.

• Please welcome Lighthouse Hockey, SBN's newest hockey blog. Dominik will be talking NY Islanders hockey for you all this season. 
• This Thursday night, FSN Detroit will go "Under the Lights" and follow four Red Wings (Thomas McCollum, Justin Abdelkader, Cory Emmerton and Mattias Ritola) prospects at Training Camp highlighting their different stories. You can catch it at 8 and 9:30pm and see a video preview here. While I'm certainly interested in seeing this unique look at training camp, I am looking forward to a behind the scenes look at how GM Ken Holland, Assistant GM Jim Nill, and head coach Mike Babcock evaluate players during this time.
• As I speculated earlier this week, Wings defenseman Andreas Lilja was not ready for Friday night's game as Babcock had originally predicted. It has been three days since his appendectomy and while he didn't play in the game against Atlanta, he is aiming to return on Monday's road game in LA.
• During Saturday night's game in Chicago, the two teams will release during the first intermission (on FSN Detroit) the jerseys that will be worn for the Winter Classic game at Wrigley Field on January 1st. These jerseys will only be worn during the classic, which should help open fans' wallets to get their hands on a unique jersey.
• Friday night was the Wings second annual Breast Cancer Awareness Night at Joe Louis Arena. They hosted a puck draw as well as a silent auction with proceeds benefitting local women fighting breast cancer. Defenseman Chris Chelios' sister Gigi lost the fight against breast cancer so it really hit close to him for the veteran.

While the on-ice action may not be the most exciting of the games going on tonight, it does provide some interesting story lines. Mathieu Schneider, Jason Williams, and Slava Kozlov all return to the Joe and Marian Hossa faces his former team.

The game starts at 7:30pm against the Atlanta Thrashers. It is Breast Cancer Awareness Night so there will be a puck draw and silent auction with proceeds going towards the fight against breast cancer.

I will be at the game, but please feel free to leave comments during the game. Go Wings!

Tonight at 8:30pm, the Detroit Red Wings (3-1-1) take on the Blues (4-1-0) in St. Louis for the first of six games between the two Central Division teams. Hopefully this will be the last time this season that the Blues are ahead of Detroit in the Division standings. Last year, the Wings were 4-3-1 against St. Louis.

Ty Conklin will get the start in goal today for Detroit and former Red Wing Manny Legace will be in goal for St. Louis.

Both Brad Stuart and Henrik Zetterberg are feeling better from their respective injuries and will be in the line-up tonight.

I will be around WIM during the game tonight so please stop by and keep me company!

Forward veteran Darren McCarty cleared waivers on Tuesday after the team did so in case they needed to bring up a player from GR unexpectedly and allows for cap flexibility.

"We're putting him on waivers because we want the flexibility with the salary cap," general manager Ken Holland said. "He's ready to come off IR. He could play Wednesday, or he could be claimed. If he's claimed, I'm happy for him -- it means another NHL team is going to keep him and pay him major league money."

It comes as so no surprise that he was not picked up by another team. He isn't lightning fast nor is he a big offensive threat. He's simply known for his physical play -- the enforcer of the team, which is frankly not needed so much in the NHL these days. Plus, McCarty is currently on injured reserve due to a sore groin.

As much as I love the guy, I'd rather see him in GR. He is a fan favorite and would help draw even more people to Grand Rapids Griffins hockey games even though GR is already stacked plus he'd be a great veteran presence to their young roster. This season I actually want to try to make it to a Griffins game because their roster is full of players close to the making the Wings line-up. Plus, it doesn't sound like he's going to be getting a ton of ice time here anyways.

Helm assigned to GR

Henrik Zetterberg has been out with a sore groin, but appears to be getting close to returning to play as forward Darren Helm was re-assigned to GR. Zetterberg had his first full skate Tuesday morning and if he's still doing well Wednesday, we could very well see him in the line-up against St. Louis.

"We're not keeping Helm around to be the 13th forward," Holland said. "If Mike Babcock wants him in the lineup Wednesday, we'll figure that out, but we're not keeping him around to be a spare piece."

Helm's re-assignment isn't really indicative of his play. The speedy forward has done really well in his limited role, but would be better served developing in GR where he will get to log solid minutes.